As part of the opening ceremonies for the 2019 World Pokémon Championships in Washington DC, some new information was revealed for Pokémon Sword and Shield.

A Battle Stadium will be available for multiplayer: ranked and casual battles will be available, as well as online competitions that can be hosted by players and the ability to use rental Pokémon. Nintendo Switch Online will be required for access to the Battle Stadium.

At the World Championship opening ceremonies, new abilities and items were shown for the first time. Galarian Weezing's second ability, previously unknown, was revealed as "Neutralizing Gas" which cancels the affects of all other abilities on the field. Corviknight's hidden ability, which will be obtainable through Max Raid Battles, is "Mirror Armor" which reflects stat debuffs back to the opponent.

A new move was demonstrated by Flygon, called "Breaking Swipe" which damages and lowers the Attack stat of all opponents it hits. Two new held items were also shown off: "Eject Pack" which forces a Pokémon to switch if its stats are lowered, and "Room Service" which lowers the Speed of the holder under the Trick Room status (thereby providing an actual speed boost, as Trick Room forces slower Pokémon to attack first).